Chapter Text
“Would it kill you to think things through sometimes?” Silver spits. From Ethan’s point of view, he can see Silver’s angry expression reflected in the dark ice the two were standing on, despite the wet surface distorting it. He kept his head down. As much as Silver could stand to put things a little lighter, he was right. Ethan got them into this mess.
It wasn’t a bright idea in the first place to come here so late at night, but his mom had told him to have an adventure- so why not try and camp out in a dark, cold, icy cave? He would drag his past self back by the legs, if he could. The only light he had was from Togetic’s flash, and the cave got colder and colder the further he went on.
So, coming here in the first place- not a bright idea, right? Then, Ethan had the even brighter idea to let his Typhlosion use Flame Wheel in a small, claustrophobic section of the trail. Ice types are weak to fire. Great. Well, so is real, much heavier ice. All of this over a random Delibird…
He had been really, really lucky that Typhlosion was safe in her Pokéball by the time the arch of ice gave out, and that Silver had enough sense to grab him by the hood and pull the teen back before the walls of ice around the battlefield collapsed on top of the both of them.
Turning back was impossible- any light left from outside was gone by the time they had gotten this deep into the cave. The dinky flashlight he had gotten from a raffle in Goldenrod was certainly cute, but it happened to be out of batteries. Just his luck.
And that’s how they got in this situation- the only obvious exit blocked off by a pile of slowly melting ice, Ethan thoroughly bummed out and sitting on the warmest rock in this entire cave, and Silver glaring down at him like he had committed a crime.
Would Silver even care if I committed a crime? Ethan thinks to himself.
“I’m sorry.” Is all Ethan says. He wishes he could say something else, like ‘My Pokégear has a signal still, so we’ll be fine,’ or ‘I told someone before we left, so we’ll be rescued eventually,’ but neither of those statements were true, so he bit his tongue.
Silver huffs. “That’s it? We might die down here, and you can only say sorry?”
“Yeah. Unless you want me to remind you that you’re the one who followed me?” Ethan snaps back with rare annoyance.
His rival looks away in rare embarrassment. “If you had any sense, you would have known to be more careful in the first place.” Silver grumbles.
Ethan takes a deep breath. Now is not the time for them to bicker. “I’ll figure a way out. Just let me think.”
It was hard to think about anything at all when it was this cold, though. His outfit was already borderline for Blackthorn- it’s high up in the mountains, and the windchill gets intense. He knew from past experience that he’d have to be in and out of that town as quickly as he could manage, or else fork over some prize money to dress appropriately. He shivers as quietly as he can, staring down at the low resolution map that was downloaded onto his Pokégear. The blue light is a little too bright in the dark.
A shadow looms over him from behind, and for a moment he thinks the Delibird has come back to finish the two of them off.
“Let me look.” Silver says impatiently and expectantly..
“Jeez, man,” Ethan startles. “It’s dark in here, don’t scare me like that.”
Silver ignores him, crouching down on one knee besides him and dragging Ethan’s wrist closer so he could read the tiny screen.
“…You’re seriously cold.” He comments offhandedly after fiddling with the map.
“Yeah? Should I not be? It’s… really cold in here.” Ethan tries not to let his teeth chatter as he laughs. He was right. Ethan couldn’t feel the tips of his fingers. He barely registers Silver taking his hand in his, squeezing them like he was taking the temperature of someone sick.
Silver stands up. “Get up.”
“What? Did you find a way out?” Ethan looks down at his Pokégear. Maybe if they went down that way, and then took a left…
“Just get moving, it’ll warm you up.”
The two spent the next hour trying to make their way through the cave. It was difficult, but definitely preferable than sitting on an icy rock for hours and waiting for someone to save them. Whatever path Silver had noticed that Ethan hadn’t was long and winding, and there were multiple times where they had to use each other as a handrail. Sneakers are definitely not ice-path worthy shoes and Silver nor Ethan was spared from slipping and looking like a fool.
Their search was fruitless. No matter which path they took, they ended up having to backtrack. Almost an hour and a half had passed since they had gotten trapped, and Ethan resorted to taking Typhlosion out just to warm his hands back up. She didn’t seem as bothered by the ice as they were, so while the two trainers inspected the map, she would curl up around Ethan’s feet.
“This map has to be outdated.” Silver says, almost to himself. “There should be a place we can drop down here, but…” The two of them looked beyond the Pokégear at the large sheet of ice before them.
“Maybe the ice melted during the beginning of spring, but froze up during a dip in temperatures?” Ethan suggests, and Silver actually nods his head in agreement.
“I think,” Silver begins with a pained look. “We will just have to melt the blockade ourselves.”
“...You were yelling at me for melting things earlier, though.”
“Melt it slowly.” Silver corrects. He pulls Ethan’s arm closer. Just get your own Pokégear, at this point. “See? Even this area here has re-froze in the last year. I’m surprised they even let people in here. If we melt it slowly, it won’t collapse. Just how it melts during the spring.”
“Right.” Ethan says slowly, Klinklang gears spinning in his head. “Won’t that mean we’ll have to sleep here?”
Silver’s pained looked returns. “Yeah, I’m not too happy about that either. I’d rather live than get buried in ice, though.”
He steps away, frozen floor crunching under his feet. Ethan looks down at Typhlosion’s Pokéball, metallic red faintly glowing in the dark.
Typhlosion happily growls. Ethan was right- the thing isn’t bothered at all. She was curled up against the collapsed wall of ice. He looks down at the Pokédex entry he had sitting on his screen.
When heat from its body causes the air around it to shimmer, this is a sign that it is ready to battle.
“I wonder if the fur is thermoregulatory to protect against it’s flames… because that’d mean it’d protect it from the cold, too.” Ethan murmurs into the collar of his hoodie. Now that he’s waiting for his chance to battle the champion, he doesn’t have much else to do but fill out the Pokédex he was given and take field notes for Professor Elm. Lyra’s been doing a better job than him, though. The entries he’s collected on his journey so far entertained him as they waited it out, but he wishes either of them had a book or something.
The cold was a little more bearable with Typhlosion out of her ball, and the tarp, purchased by his mother, kept him dry. He could still see his breath, though. The wall was melting as fast as it could without the structural integrity of the impromptu ice sculpture being threatened, but it looked like he was going to spend all night like this…
He glances to his side. The ringing of Sneasel’s claws against icy rock had been startling at first, but now he barely registers it. It looks right at home as it searches the cave wall for any draft or opening, sharp claws letting it cling to the slick surface and dark fur letting it blend in. Silver has his knees tucked into his chest, watching Sneasel carefully and Pokéball in hand just in case.
“Are you cold?” Ethan asks.
“No.” Silver replies simply. “I’ve dealt with worse.”
Worse?
“Once Sneasel is tired, you should come over here. It’s not much warmer, but you might be able to get some rest…” The glow from Typhlosion wasn’t bright, but warm, and it made the whole cave glow a soft orange.
Silver all but ignores him besides a glance.
“Sneas?” Sneasel calls, after hearing it’s name. Silver doesn’t tell it to continue searching for a draft- he’s accepted they’re properly stuck. The catlike Pokémon bounds over to its trainer, its head turned up in question. Silver reaches his hand out, hand running against the grain of soft blue-black fur. Sneasel purrs, and Ethan reflects on how if he were to pet Typhlosion’s hair backwards, he’d get burnt to a crisp.
Once it’s grown bored of Silver’s affection, it hops over to the sleeping Typhlosion.
“Sneasel.” Silver hisses. Sneasel stops for a moment, does something akin to a giggle, and then curls up around Typhlosion’s dozing body. Silver holds up it’s dusk ball, but Ethan waves him away.
“Typhlosion doesn’t mind. The flames on her back haven’t gotten any bigger!” He points out.
Maybe it’s peer pressure, but Silver finally shifts until he’s able to feel Typhosion’s warmth, too. The two sit there for a while. Without Sneasel hopping around, Silver is left to stare at the flames on Typhlosion’s back. After a dozen or so minutes of this, Ethan has to ask.
“Do you want my Pokégear? I don’t want you to be bored…” He clips it off his wrist and holds it out gingerly. Silver silently takes it and starts fiddling with it immediately. Maybe he really was bored, and Ethan feels a little guilty. Maybe he should start packing a comic book or something on long trips like this- not that he plans to get stuck in Ice Path again.
“Well,” Ethan says with renewed cheer. “I think I’ll sleep, now that I don’t have a glowing rectangle to keep me awake.” His backpack wasn’t exactly the most comfortable of pillows, but it beat having just the thin tarp, so he flops down onto it. Silver doesn’t respond again. His eyes are fixed on the Pokégear, and the familiar sounds tell him he’s rifling through Ethan’s Pokédex.
It’s only when his eyes are closed does he feels Silver’s coat placed on top of him.
“Why?” Ethan sputters out, almost sitting up, grasping at the coat.
“I don’t want to be blamed if you die in here.” Silver says dully, down to his undershirt.
“What if you die!?”
“I won’t.” Ethan remembers that word from earlier- ‘worse’.
The champ-in-the-making grumbles a little in dissatisfaction. He hates inconveniencing others, despite his mistake-prone personality. There’s no arguing with Silver, though. He lays back down, bringing the jacket over his shoulders as he curls up on the tarp.
“...What do you mean by you’ve been through worse?” He asks quieter, after another few minutes of soft beeping from the Pokégear.
SIlver visually stiffens at the question, and the sounds from the electronic stops.
“Why do you want to know?” Comes Silver’s careful and rude answer.
“...because hearing that kind of worried me.” Ethan softly admits.
“...Johto has all kinds of weather to offer. If you’re not prepared, you’ll get swept away. It’s that simple.”
“Shelter is really important though, isn’t it? Even Pokémon Centers let people stay free of charge, if the weather gets bad enough.” Ethan points out.
“You think I want to get arrested?” Silver bitterly laughs around his reply.
That only worries Ethan more. “You don’t… you haven’t had a place to stay, anywhere…?”
“...Not everyone is as pampered as you, Ethan." Silver’s tired eyes go back to the Pokégear. Ethan blinks at him, the rocks underneath the tarp digging into the soft of his upper arm.
“You can stay at my home, if you want.”
“That’s stupid.” Silver deadpans.
“It’s not.” Ethan retorts stubbornly.
“I’m not… That’s your home, Ethan. Not mine. I’d stick out like a sore thumb.” Silver shakes his head, hair dyed silver by the light from the Pokégear.
Stubborn jerk. “The offer stands.”
Silver’s jacket did end up warming him up. It wasn’t big enough to be a proper blanket, but curling up under it made him feel more like he fell asleep on his desk and less like he fell asleep outside. He actually managed to start dozing off, before the tarp rustling roused him.
Silver had laid down next to him, Sneasel curled up contentedly on his stomach, hair haloed by Typhlosion’s fire. He was closer to the fire type Pokémon than he was, so maybe it was fine, but…
“Do you want your jacket back?” Ethan asks, his voice a little hoarse from sleep.
Silver startled. Maybe he thought Ethan was out. “No, it’s fine. Go back to bed.” He whispers back, and shuts his own eyes.
Ethan grins and clears his throat. “Hardly call this a bed.”
“Do you normally talk like this when you’re falling asleep?” Silver can’t help but smile too.
“Do you not sleep until, like,” he glances down at the Pokégear now between them. The low power mode made him have to squint to see the time. 12:32am. Damn, he really does lose track of time in the dark. Memories of getting lost in Union cave come back to him. “...midnight, or something?”
“I sleep whenever I want. You really are a kid, sticking to your mom’s bedtime.” Sneasel’s ear twitches, but the Pokémon doesn’t stir from the conversation.
“She doesn’t care when I sleep unless I’m being loud.” Ethan quietly protests.
Silver rolls his eyes at that. The Pokémon reclining on him turns in it’s sleep, belly up.
“Sounds like a irresponsible parent.”
“...I miss my mom.” Ethan says, reminiscing on her sometimes annoyed, mostly gentle reminders to get some rest. “After this, I’m going home and not coming out until it’s properly springtime again.” Memories of warm meals, fresh bedding after a long adventure, and family photos decorating the house come back to him.
Silver gives him that glance again. “...What’s your home like?” He asks after a moment’s hesitation.
“Why do you want to know?” Ethan quotes a rude Silver from earlier, earning him a glare. “...but I’ll humor you.”
He expects another eyeroll or scoff from Silver, but the other boy is unusually quiet, looking up at the sparkling roof, waiting for his rival to continue.
“Well, it’s quiet. The only bustle is from the Elm lab. Heh, it even brought you in!”
“Sorry for destroying the peace of your picturesque little hamlet.” Silver says with little honesty.
“Believe me, people are still talking about it.” The both of them grin at the mental image of wanted posters plastered on every telephone pole. Ethan continues. “Me and my mom live on our own. My room is in the attic- and I get my own balcony!”
“And Lyra?”
“She’s at my house all the time. You’d think she lives there! Her dad works from home, so sometimes I have meals at their house.” If he closes his eyes, he can see his mom on the couch, and Lyra bounding up the stairs to check if he’s home, and the windsocks outside high above the pine trees.
“...How long have you known her?”
Typhosion’s flames crackle as the Pokémon dozes. Silver runs his fingers absentmindedly through the fur on Sneasel’s head. The embers and sparks make the entire cave gently sparkle.
“My whole life. New Bark Town is pretty small. We are- well, were- the only kids there.”
“It must be nice.” Silver remarks.
“I guess. It’s all I’ve ever known.” It’s complicated for Ethan. Johto is at his fingertips now, and being at home for too long is sometimes stifling. Arceus knows how many times he’s disappeared without telling his mom, having to suffer through long Pokégear calls of “Where are you!?” and “Did you bring your sleeping bag!?” or “Come back if you run into trouble!”. Now, though? He doesn’t want to be anywhere but New Bark Town.
Silver looks at him for a moment, and then reveals his own picturesque home life. “...I stay in hotels, sometimes. Most of the time it’s like this, though.”
“What about your family? Do they not offer you a place to stay?” Ethan questions, and Silver smiles bitterly.
“Ethan, I’d rather spend a thousand nights in this cave with you than one under the same roof as my parents.”
“Jeez.” He wasn’t sure if he should be flattered or offended. He’s having trouble deciding, and an even harder time keeping his eyes open. Ethan shuts them forcefully, trying to keep himself from dozing off.
It was only recently that Silver stopped letting that weird defense mechanism of his ruin their conversations. If he fell asleep, he worried the wall between them would be rebuilt in the morning.
“If you’re tired, sleep.” He didn’t know when, but Silver had turned on his side to face Ethan, Sneasel still comfortable and snuggled up into the soft of his long-sleeved shirt.
“You’re surprisingly nice. Maybe we should get stuck in caves together more often.” Ethan pokes back.
“Don’t make me take my jacket back.”
Silver didn’t actually expect half the jacket to be draped over him.
“Ethan!?” He exclaims. “I told you, it’s fine. You’re wearing shorts, for Arceus’ sake.”
“I knew you wanted it back. Share it with me.” Ethan pushes himself closer to his rival. “If this a bed, then it’s a home. You’re not suppose to be cold at home.”
“Sneas…”
Sneasel finally stirs with their voices, and once again Silver mentally resigns because this guy.
‘Some people are cold all the time.’
He couldn’t say it, though. Not after the look Ethan gave him after admitting he has nowhere to go.
Instead, Silver shuts his eyes, pushing the image of the faint freckles on the bridge of Ethan’s nose far, far away.
“Whatever. Just sleep already.”
Any warmth that the two had managed to conserve during the night immediately disappeared as Ethan sat up. He thinks it’s morning- faint light from the exit on the other side of the wall drowned out the flames from Typhlosion.
“The… The way forward! It’s clear!” Pillars of melted and refrozen ice surrounded where the wall blocking their way once stood. Typhlosion stretched at Ethan’s yelp, flashing her fangs, but seemingly unaffected by sleeping on the hard ground.
“Silver! Wake up!” His rival was still sound asleep next to him, red hair stark against the white tarp. Ethan shook his shoulders. “We can get through now!”
“Ugh…” He frowned up at Ethan, confusion written all over his face, but the look softened as he realized what Ethan was telling him. “Good. Let’s get moving.” He said, rubbing his eyes.
It took a minute for the two of them to pack up, Silver grimacing every time he moved. Once the two of them had made their way out of the relatively short path left before the exit, Ethan laughed in the welcomed morning sunshine.
“I guess we have to work on furnishing that place before we can really call it a home!”
“Stop saying weird stuff and get moving.” Was all a tired Silver could say in return.